Daddy Issues
by Monroe-Militia
Summary: When Charlie finds out who her real father is, she heads to Chicago to meet him. Only he doesn't seem all that eager to meet her...
1. Chapter 1

Charlie took a deep breath and braced herself before stepping through the entrance and scanning the bar.

She knew that there was a good chance that he wouldn't be here and yet she still couldn't calm her nerves down.

She wanted Miles to be here, or at least she thought she did, but she was also afraid of how exactly she was supposed to introduce herself.

_Hi, I'm Charlie. Your niece who you've never met... Or at least that's what I thought until last night when I found out that you're really my dad and my parents have been lying about it for my entire life._

That definitely was not the way to do it. She just wasn't sure that there really was a right way to go about this.

Maybe he wouldn't be here... What if this whole trip was for nothing? It wasn't that far-fetched of an idea when she was basically just hoping that he still worked at the bar here and lived in an apartment over top two decades after the last time that either of her parents had heard from him.

She'd only ever seen him in old pictures and she was relying solely on those to help her recognize him. She just hoped that he still looked the same.

Charlie scanned the room and felt her stomach drop like it had when she was ten and had talked Danny into going on the tallest roller coaster in the amusement park, only to regret her decision once she had reached the crest of the hill. There it was. The face that she had seen in old pictures plenty of times, but never had really put much thought into up until the night before… The face of her biological father.

She knew that she couldn't back out now, so she forced her shaking legs to step forward.

* * *

Miles peered up as a nervous looking girl approached the bar. Christ, she was practically shaking with fear.

If she was trying to use a fake ID to buy booze, then she really was not fooling anyone when she was walking around looking this terrified.

Still, it wasn't like he particularly cared if she was underage and she certainly looked like she could use a drink, so he decided that he'd take it easy on the kid.

"What do you want?" He asked her in an unenthusiastic tone.

She stood there in complete silence, staring at him like a deer in the headlights for an uncomfortably long amount of time before he finally felt the need to loudly clear his throat.

"What'll you have?" He asked a little more insistently this time, leading her to only look a little more frightened as she continued to wordlessly stare at him. "Look, kid. I don't know if you've ever ordered a drink before, but usually how this goes is I ask what you want and then you give me an answer and I go get you a drink… You're not just supposed to stand there, staring at me like a crazy person."

* * *

Charlie just wanted to turn around and walk away… Or maybe the floor could just open up below her and swallow her whole.

Dammit, Charlie… Come on. Just say something… _Anything_.

"Hi."

Okay, maybe don't say that… Or at least say something else with it.

Why was she panicking so much?

"Alright, that's it," he said in a tone of undisguised exasperation. "I'm done. I tried figuring out what the hell you want."

As she watched him turn to walk away, Charlie's brain suddenly snapped back into action as she urgently told him, "Wait!"

"What?" He asked seeming less than eager to be stuck with her for any longer.

"Are you Miles?" She asked him. "Miles Matheson?"

* * *

Miles was beginning to wonder if this little weirdo had been put up to this… Whatever this was.

She was definitely testing his patience and he was just about ready to throw her out of the place.

"Maybe," Miles told her. "What's it to you?"

"I'm Charlie," she responded as if this was some kind of fucking meet and greet as her gaze shifted down to the bar-top. "I'm Rachel Matheson's daughter…" She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot before her eyes flickered back up to meet his. "I'm your daughter."

"Ah, shit."

* * *

Charlie wasn't sure how she'd been expecting him to react, but it wasn't just with swearing and then turning to walk away.

"Hold on," she insisted angrily.

"Go back home, kid," Miles told her as he turned back to face her again.

"No." Charlie persisted. "I didn't come all this way just so that you could just tell me to go home."

"Well then I guess you're going home disappointed," he retorted in a less than sympathetic tone.

"Don't you care at all that I'm your daughter?" She demanded.

"Look, I already knew that I had a kid," Miles told her. "A kid that was being raised by Ben to think that she was his daughter. So what the hell happened to that?"

"My Dad found out, so my parents decided to tell me," Charlie explained as she desperately fought back the tears she could feel fighting to escape her eyes. "I thought that you would be happy to see me… Or at least that you wouldn't be like this."

* * *

Miles sighed to himself as he looked at the girl in front of him. She was determined, he'd give her that.

That was clearly something that she'd gotten from Rachel. That along with the look of disappointment that he knew meant that he was about to do something that he was thoroughly going to regret later.

He hesitated for a moment as he noticed for the first time the straps of the backpack she was wearing.

_Great. So she was expecting more than just to meet him._

Miles inwardly kicked himself as he told her, "Look, Chicago's not exactly a short trip for you… And you don't really look like you know how to take care of yourself. So, if you want, then I guess you can sleep on my couch for the night-"

A wide grin formed on Charlie's lips, which only caused Miles to grimace as he raised his voice in the hopes that she would actually listen to him.

"But only for the night, alright?" He asked her. "That's it. One night and then you're out of here tomorrow morning, okay?"

She bit her lip as if to stop herself from another outburst as she nodded her head a little.

"Alright. Go through that door over there," Miles told her jerking his chin towards the back of the bar. "And up the stairs… Don't bother trying to wait up. I'm working late and even if you're awake when I get up there, I'm not going to want to be."

* * *

Charlie was afraid to push her luck any further and end up having him change his mind, so she once again just nodded her head in agreement as if that was all that she knew how to do anymore.

She shot him a big grin before turning in the direction of the door that he had indicated.

She didn't manage to get more than two steps before she heard a gruff voice behind her.

"Kid, wait."

Charlie turned, thrilled that he was calling her back, only to find that he had dug his keys out of his pockets.

"You might need these," he commented as he tossed the keys over to her.

Charlie caught them and then turned her attention back to him, waiting to see if there was more.

"Now go," he insisted, as if she were stupid, while he jerked his chin in the direction of the door once again.

Charlie nodded once again, feeling a little stupid herself, before she turned to head for the door and tripped a little over her own feet on the way.

* * *

Charlie let herself into Miles' apartment over the bar to find that it was pitch black. Apparently he hadn't heard of windows.

She brought her hand to the wall on the inside of the door, only to feel nothing but smoothness. No sign of a light switch on either side.

She hesitantly stepped into the room, following the wall with her hand as she carefully walked.

She made it to the end of the wall, then the end of a second and was starting to wonder whether she was ever going to find the light-switch when her hand finally brushed against it half-way across the third wall.

She flicked the light on and looked around the room.

Miles' apartment was a little small, but surprisingly neat and organized. She had been expecting it to be a big mess.

She stood there for a moment before curiosity took over. Miles had said that he wasn't going to be back until late and if she really did have to leave the next morning, then she may as well look around and find out a little about the stranger who was her biological father.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! I tried to use line breaks to make the changes in POV more clear, so hopefully that worked. There'll probably be more of this story soon since I already have a few chapters written.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

Bass walked through the door to his friend's apartment and stepped through. He was more than used to the maze that was Miles' apartment and was able to travel through it easily, without thinking, to get to the light switch.

That was, he was usually able to get through it.

"Dammit." He muttered to himself as he stubbed his toe on something in the dark.

What the hell had Miles left on the floor for him to trip over?

Bass carefully stepped over the obstacle, whatever it was, and then continued walking, only to accidentally step on another mystery object on his way.

He fell forward, and dropped the bag holding the breakfast that he had brought for him and Miles as the coffees he had been carrying spilled onto him, burning his chest.

He barely managed to catch himself as he reached an arm out to the couch… Only that wasn't couch that he was feeling.

* * *

Charlie woke up with a start as she felt a hand grab her.

She turned and could just barely make out a set of eyes in the darkness as she felt the hand leave her body.

She heard a distinctly male voice mutter out, "Shit."

"Who the hell are you?" Charlie demanded in a panicked tone as she bolted into an upright position.

* * *

"Who the hell am_ I_?" Bass asked incredulously as he set the coffee tray down on the table where it wouldn't be able to do any more damage to him. "Who the hell are you?"

He moved to get around the couch, going to go head for the light switch so that he could figure out who the hell this girl was.

* * *

Charlie saw him heading towards her and quickly reached for the nearest object that she could use as a weapon. Unfortunately for her, when she reached out all that she could find was a remote.

Still, it was better than nothing and she wasn't about to go down without a fight.

* * *

Bass didn't make it two steps before he was being hit roughly over and over.

As he brought his arm up to guard where he had already been hit in the face, he complained, "Ow! What the hell? …Who the hell are you even?"

The hits just kept coming and so he decided to raise his voice a little.

"Just stop!" Bass insisted. "Calm the hell down for a second."

When that didn't work, he decided on a different approach.

"Miles!" He shouted out loudly. "There's a crazy person in your home!"

* * *

"I'm the crazy person?" Charlie demanded as she stopped attacking for a moment, but kept the remote in hand, ready to defend herself. "You're the weirdo who broke in here and started groping me while I was asleep!"

The lights flickered on then as a gruff voice questioned, "What the hell is going on in here?"

Charlie turned her head to see Miles standing by the light switch in the entrance of the room, barely half-dressed, and looking incredibly unimpressed. But then again, she hadn't seen him look anything but unimpressed since she had arrived.

* * *

"What's going on?" Bass echoed in disbelief. "What's going on is that I practically burnt a nipple off spilling coffee all over myself while I tripped over all the shit you left everywhere on the floor-" He paused for a moment to gesture dramatically at where the backpack that he had stubbed his toes on and the extra pillow from the couch that he had tripped over. "And then this crazy person you've got sleeping on your couch tried to beat me to death with… A TV remote? …Oh, that's just perfect, Miles."

He let out a dry laugh as he looked between the half-dressed mystery girl, who was still clutching the remote as if she was ready to strike again at any moment, and his friend.

* * *

Charlie couldn't believe what she was hearing as she turned to stare at Miles. He couldn't be buying this, could he?

"You have got to be kidding me," she insisted before turning her attention back to the over-dramatic intruder. "You can't seriously be trying to play the victim right now."

"You're the one who attacked me," he retorted. "So, yeah, I'm pretty sure that does make me the victim. The victim of your insanity!"

"You're the one who was trying to grope me in my sleep!" Charlie argued. "Excuse me for defending myself."

"Wait, what?" Miles asked as he turned his gaze back to his friend.

* * *

Bass couldn't believe that Miles actually seemed to be wondering if this girl was telling the truth.

"What? Really Miles?" He asked. "Do you really think that I just went, oh look, a girl and decided to grope some random sleeping girl on your couch? …Come on, you've got to give me a little more credit than that. I tripped over these damn pillows and put a hand out to catch myself. How the hell was I supposed to know that there was some random girl sleeping on your couch? Who even is she?"

"Alright, just calm down, Bass," Miles told him in an exasperated tone. "This is Charlie."

"Charlie?" Bass asked a little hesitantly. "As in Charlotte..? As in..?"

He trailed his words off, figuring that things could end disastrously if he ended up accidentally letting it slip that Miles was her dad if she didn't already know… If this even was the same Charlie.

"As in my daughter-niece?" Miles filled in the blanks for him. "Yeah, that'd be the one."

Bass turned his attention back to the girl and looked her up and down once again, this time taking her in a little more since he knew now that she was apparently Miles' daughter.

* * *

Charlie felt more than a little uncomfortable as Miles' weird friend looked her over. In what world did finding out that a girl was your friend's daughter mean that you should check her out?

She didn't want to be in the same room with him while she was only half-dressed for any longer. So she bent down and grabbed her backpack before heading out of the room in the direction of the washroom that she had found during her snooping the night before.

* * *

Bass pressed a cold ice-pack to the side of his face as he leaned back against Miles' kitchen counter.

"Look, man, your daughter is hot. I mean, she's significantly more attractive than you, so congratulations on making that. But she's not _that _hot, okay? And no offence, but the joy of your company was not worth getting pummelled by a remote-wielding lunatic over."

"Come on, Bass," Miles insisted. "She thought you were groping her in her sleep. You probably scared her half to death."

"_I_ scared _her_?" Bass asked as he shook his head in disbelief. "...Why didn't you tell me that she was coming?"

"I didn't know," Miles told him. "I didn't even know that she knew about me. She just showed up at the bar last night, all over-enthusiastic and pushy."

Bass didn't get the chance to respond before he heard footsteps approaching and looked up to the doorway.

Seconds later, Charlie walked through the door and Bass suddenly changed his mind about his earlier comment about her not being _that _hot.

Now that she'd had time to get herself ready and was dressed in a simple pair of blue jeans and a tight grey tank top that rode up an inch or two above the waist of her jeans, all Bass could do was stare at her helplessly as she strode into the room.

That is until she sat down and reached for the bag of food that was sitting in the middle of the kitchen table. Bass's opinion of her very quickly changed back as she pulled his breakfast sandwich out of the bag.

"Oh come on, now she's eating my breakfast?" Bass complained in a tone that came off admittedly whiny as he turned to look helplessly over at his friend. "Miles."

* * *

Charlie froze with the food halfway to her lips before setting it back down on the table and pushing it a ways away from herself.

She'd had a little time for her thoughts to catch up to her as she had gotten ready and, now that she was fully clothed, she had managed to calm down over the Bass thing. In fact she had even reached a point where she was willing to admit, only to herself of course, that she had overreacted a little.

Miles looked between his food and the other two with a torn expression for a moment before he ripped the muffin that Bass has brought him in half and reluctantly handed part of it to Charlie.

* * *

A few seconds passed in silence before Bass decided to give up on the ice and moved to join them at the table.

As he picked up his sandwich, Charlie commented, "Sorry... About your face."

Bass wasn't convinced that she sounded all that sorry, but he gave her a small nod of his head anyways.

* * *

Charlie was just about to finish off her half of Miles' muffin when her cell phone began to ring loudly.

She groaned a little to herself, already suspecting who was calling, as she pulled the phone out of the pocket of her jeans. She looked down at the screen and was disappointed to find that she had been right about who was calling as 'Home' flashed across the screen.

Charlie hit the ignore button and then set her phone back down on the table before resuming eating.

"Shouldn't you be answering that?" Miles questioned, presumably having seen who was calling.

"I'm not really in the mood to talk to my mom right now," Charlie informed him. "I'll call her later."

Miles didn't seem thrilled by her answer.

A couple of brief minutes passed before Charlie's phone began to ring again.

She was just about to hit the ignore button when she saw her brother's name on the screen. Even though she knew he must be with their mom, she couldn't make herself hit the ignore button. She didn't want Danny to worry about her, so she was willing to bite the bullet.

"Hello?" She asked nervously as she brought the phone to her ear after hitting the answer button.

"Where are you, Charlie?" Her brother asked, skipping right over the formalities.

"You have to promise not to freak out first," she insisted.

"Fine," he agreed, sounding a little reluctant to her ears.

"...I'm in Chicago," she admitted before biting down on her lip as she awaited her brother's reaction.

"Look, Mom's hovering over my shoulder expecting me to tell her where you are and I'm pretty sure that she knows I know, so if you don't want her to find out then you'd better tell me now before she rips the phone out of my hand," Danny responded.

Charlie ran a hand through her hair, attempting to untangle an imaginary knot, before frowning as she told her brother, "I don't want to get you in trouble, so I guess just put her on the phone."

"Are you sure?" He questioned.

"Yeah," she responded nervously, nodding her head a little despite the fact that she was talking through a phone.

"Charlie?" Her mother's voice came through the phone a moment later. "Where are you? Why aren't you answering my calls?"

Charlie took a deep breath before admitting, "I'm in Chicago... With Miles."

* * *

Miles waited a moment, wondering what Rachel could possibly be saying about him, before Charlie hesitated for a moment and glanced up at him as she brought the phone away from her ear.

"She wants to talk to you," she informed him.

"No." Miles responded bluntly.

He hadn't spoken to Rachel in over twenty years and they really had not left things in good standing. There was no way that he was going to let Charlie just stroll in and change that.

She needed to get out of here. It was morning. She had agreed that, if she spent the night, she'd leave in the morning. So what the hell was she still doing here, holding out her phone to him, refusing to take no for an answer?

How was it that the kid had been there for less than a day and had spent most of that time sleeping and was already a major pain in his ass? She needed to leave. She needed to go as soon as he could get her out the door.

Miles stared disapprovingly at the phone for a few more seconds before he realized that Charlie wasn't planning on giving up.

He cursed under his breath before snatching the cell out of her hand and bringing it up to his ear.

"What?" He questioned.

"What the hell is she doing there?" Rachel demanded, getting straight to the point.

"How am I supposed to know?" He asked. "You're the one who knows her. You should have seen this coming before you told her the truth about me."

"So what? She just ran away to you?" Rachel questioned.

"I don't know," he responded. "I guess. She just showed up at the bar last night with a backpack, expecting some kind of welcome home party. What was I supposed to do? Throw her out on her ass? She doesn't exactly seem street-smart to me."

"I don't know what you should have done," Rachel admitted. "Look, Miles. Just please don't hurt her."

There was a brief silence before Rachel spoke again.

"Can you give the phone back to her?"

* * *

Charlie took her phone from Miles and then told her mother, "I'm back."

"How long are you staying with him?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know," Charlie told her. "But I'm not coming home anytime soon."

"Yes you are," Miles interrupted. "You said, if I let you stay over last night, that you'd leave in the morning. It's morning. You're going home."

Charlie ignored that comment as she told her mother, "I don't know how Danny can stand to live there anymore."

"That's not fair and you know it, Charlie," Rachel insisted. "Look, if you want to stay with Miles for a while, then I can't stop you. But don't make this about trying to run away from the family you already have."

"Don't make it sound like I'm running away from Dad," Charlie insisted. "He's not the problem. You are."

She didn't wait for her mother's response before hanging up on her.

* * *

"You're going home," Miles insisted as he watched Charlie set her phone back down on the table.

He wasn't going to let her just barge into his life and start calling all the shots. He was already annoyed enough that she'd made him talk with Rachel after all of his years of carefully avoiding her. The last thing that he needed was to get dragged into the middle of a fight between the kid and her parents.

"You don't know what it's like at home right now," Charlie argued.

"You're right. I don't," he agreed. "Because that's not my problem. My problem is that you've been here for less than a day and you're already creating problems for me."

"_Already_?" Charlie asked hopefully.

Dammit. Of course that was what she got out of that. Where had this kid gotten her eagerness from? It certainly wasn't from him and he doubted that Rachel had anything to do with it. It must have been Ben's optimism wearing off on her.

"That's not what I meant," he told her frustratedly. "And I'm pretty sure you know that."

"Don't you care at all that I'm your kid?" She demanded with damn tears in her eyes. "Or that I'm your brother's kid? Or whatever the hell it is that you tell yourself? …What? You're just going to send me home to go be miserable while you go back to pretending that I don't exist?"

Miles was about three seconds away from getting up and slamming his head against the nearest wall in frustration. He bet that the kid didn't even realize how dirty she was fighting as she stared at him with those tear-filled eyes that reminded him so much of Rachel. All of her reminded him so much of Rachel, now that he got a look at her and it was bringing up a lot of memories that he had been struggling to supress for years.

After a long pause as they each stared the other down, Miles realized that she wasn't planning on giving in any time soon. Dammit. He was really going to have to get a better solution than just giving in for the sake of not having to deal with her getting too emotional.

"Fine," he told her angrily. "If it'll shut you up, then you can stay for a few nights."

The wide grin that immediately formed on her lips told him that she had probably just taken that as a full invitation to permanently move in and officially change her address.

"But that's it," he added. "Don't get too comfortable because you're not staying here long. I mean it this time."

* * *

Charlie was ecstatic. Even if he said that it was just for a few nights, he was still letting her stay.

That was a few nights away from the drama of her home life... A few nights in Chicago, where she had wanted to travel for years even before finding out about Miles... That was a few nights to try and change Miles' mind.

She couldn't hold back a huge grin as she rose from her chair and loudly told him, "You won't regret this, I swear! Thank you!"

* * *

Miles thought that he already was regretting it as the kid bounded at him and babbled excitedly.

"I'm not a hugging person," he insisted in a futile attempt to stop her.

It was already too late though. She didn't seem to care about his argument, or the fact that he was still sitting down with his arms crossed over his chest, as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.

"And yet you're hugging me anyways," Miles muttered to himself in complaint.

He looked up to see that Bass was smirking over at him and quickly shot his friend a stern glare.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to Sexy Meat Pies, RevolutionReader, decadenceofmysoul, LemonSupreme, emmacv, and ToTheSkyAndBack for reviewing the first chapter! :) **


	3. Chapter 3

"Well she's definitely excitable," Bass commented before taking another swig of his drink. "You've got to give her that."

It was a fairly slow night at the bar, which meant that Miles was pretty free to just lean against the counter across from his friend and actually hold a conversation.

"She's peppy," Miles retorted. "Annoyingly peppy... You know I can't stand peppy, Bass."

"Maybe she'll tone it down a bit when she knows that she's not getting thrown out right away?" Bass suggested.

"She still might if she stays on my nerves like this," Miles responded. "She's pushy too. And annoyingly stubborn."

"With you and Rachel as parents, I wonder where she possibly could have gotten that from," Bass retorted.

The bartender rolled his eyes at that before something across the room caught his eye. "She's back. You'd better be right about her toning it down now because I don't think I can respond with a straight face if she keeps expecting family bonding time."

* * *

"I'm working, Charlie," Miles insisted as she took a seat next to Bass at the bar.

"Really? Because it just looks like you're talking to Bass to me," she pointed out.

"It's part of my job," Miles retorted with a sarcastic smile. "Being a therapist to the pathetic."

"Hey," Bass complained. "You're the one who was bitching to me, Miles."

Charlie had been just about to point out that if it was Miles' job to listen to the customers that she could just order a drink and then he'd have to talk to her when Miles' gaze suddenly moved to something behind her.

Charlie turned around to see an exasperated looking waitress walking through the doors to back where the kitchen was.

"Who's that?" Charlie asked with a devious smile as she turned back to face him.

"Who?" Miles asked as he tore his gaze from the doorway to look back at her.

"That waitress you were staring at," Charlie insisted as her smile only grew in size.

"Okay, first of all, you're delusional," he told her. "And second, she's no one."

"Really?" She asked. "Because that's not the kind of look that a guy usually gives to no one."

"God you're naive," Miles muttered out. "Seriously, have you been living under a rock your whole life? This whole overly innocent thing is freaking me out a little."

* * *

Nora had just finished her shift and still had her uniform on, since she figured that it wasn't worth it to try to get changed before going home, when she walked back out of the kitchen.

As she was walking on her way to the door, she came close enough to the bar to notice Miles and Bass with an innocent looking girl who was leaning across the bar with a big grin that was directed at the bartender.

Nora had to resist the strong urge to roll her eyes as she commented, "Isn't she a little young for you, Miles? Even by your standards?"

* * *

Charlie's head quickly turned to spot the waitress from before. She turned back around and shot Miles a wide smirk. She was pretty sure that wasn't the kind of reaction that 'no one' would have to thinking Miles was flirting with someone else. She'd been right and she needed him to see that she knew it.

"She's my niece," Miles told the waitress as he looked over at her. "She's staying with me for a few days."

Charlie decided to remain silent about that instead of correcting him. After all, the situation was a little complicated and she didn't need to make him any grumpier than he already was.

* * *

Niece. That implied that Miles had a sibling… At least one.

Nora had never even heard Miles speak one word about his family and now suddenly he had a niece staying in town with him. It seemed a little strange to her. But then again, it wasn't like Miles was really one to open up about himself. In her experience, Bass was the only one who seemed to know much about Miles' past and that was only because he'd been there alongside him.

There was a brief silence before the niece turned and looked over at Miles and commented, a little smugly, "She doesn't seem like no one to me."

"No one?" Nora questioned as she crooked an eyebrow over at the bartender. "You told her I'm no one? That's nice, Miles. Really."

She wasn't entirely sure why she was surprised. Maybe it was because the no one comment implied that they had discussed her, only to have him dismiss her as being nobody to him.

* * *

Miles shot a quick glare at his daughter, while still ignoring the look that Bass had been giving him ever since he'd referred to Charlie as his niece instead of his daughter.

He really did not need to get into a fresh fight with Nora. Since breaking up they'd managed to at least remain civil for the most part, but he was sure that this was going to lead to a whole new argument about how he never let her in. He just hoped that the fact that they weren't together anymore would keep her from delivering another speech to him, or at least that she would keep it short.

And as for the niece thing, he figured that it was a lot easier to say that than to explain the daughter situation. Besides, Ben was the one who had raised her. Ben was the one she was going back to in a few days. He was just the disappointing uncle she'd come there to meet.

* * *

Nora eyed the girl for a moment before she commented, "Well, if you're staying with Miles, then I doubt that you've had anything real to eat all day... Come on, I'll get the kitchen to make us something. I'm Nora, by the way."

She figured that the girl could use at least one friendly person to talk to in town, especially when her uncle didn't seem overly happy that she was there.

"I'm Charlie," the girl responded as she immediately got up to follow her.

* * *

"You realize how screwed you are, right?" Bass questioned as he watched the pair walk away together. "If those two start talking about you, you're doomed."

"Charlie's leaving soon and things are over with Nora," Miles pointed out. "What does it matter if they want to talk to each other about me? It just means that Charlie'll have someone else to babble at and I'll get a break. Besides, maybe Nora will talk her out of her moronic belief that I'm going to be everything that she could have dreamed of and more."

"Why are you so damn insistent on getting rid of her?" Bass questioned. "We both know that you wanted her, so what's with the constant angry old man grumbling and the niece comment?"

Miles remained silent for a few moments before letting out a slight sigh and reaching across the bar to grab Bass's drink to take a chug out of it. Bass would have complained if he didn't get free drinks out of Miles all the time.

"She's not my daughter, Bass," Miles insisted. "She's Ben's. A paternity test might say she's mine, but come on. He's the one that raised her. She's grown up; she doesn't need me to be her anything. Even uncle's a stretch."

"That doesn't mean that she doesn't want you to be something," Bass pointed out. He carefully watched his friend's expression, but Miles' walls were up and he wasn't letting anything show that he didn't want to.

* * *

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to be anything to her anymore," Miles countered, really wishing that his friend would just let the subject drop. "And look at her. She's nothing like me. She's all peppy and annoying and pushy and her looks are all Rachel. I mean, I don't know how I didn't figure it out the instant that she showed up here. If it weren't for how terrified she was, she would have practically been Rachel when she tracked me down here. They both just showed up and expected me to be whatever they want and I can't do it, Bass."

"Rachel really did a number on you, Miles," Bass insisted. "You can't seriously still be trying to avoid anything that reminds you of her."

"This isn't just anything, Bass," the bartender grunted out in an annoyed tone. "This is a little mini Rachel with a whole truckload of optimism sprinkled on top."

* * *

"Thanks," Charlie said as Nora set a burger in front of her before sitting down across from her at one of the tables.

"Don't worry about it," Nora insisted. "I've been in Miles' apartment; he doesn't exactly keep a lot of food around... So, what brings you to Chicago?"

"I always wanted to come here," she answered. "So when I found out about Miles, I just came without thinking."

"Found out about Miles? What does that mean?" Nora questioned.

Charlie turned and looked back over at where Miles was still sitting with Bass before looking back down at her plate and picking at the bun of her burger a little uncertainly.

"Miles is my dad," she finally admitted after a long pause. That didn't sound quite right, so she quickly added, "Sort of."

"I didn't even know that Miles had family," Nora muttered to herself. "You're his daughter? Then why the hell did he call you his niece? …He's more of a bastard than I thought."

"It's complicated," Charlie responded. "Until a couple of nights ago, I thought he was just an uncle that I never met. But it turns out that he's my dad and my dad's my real uncle."

When a silence followed, she picked up her burger and began to eat it just to have something to do.

* * *

Nora still thought that it had been a pretty asshole move on Miles' part to introduce Charlie as his niece, but she held her words back as she glared over at where the bartender was obliviously talking to Bass.

She turned her gaze back to Charlie and a little of her annoyance left her expression as she turned and asked, "So how long are you here for?"

"I don't know," Charlie admitted. "Miles isn't exactly thrilled that I'm here, so probably not long."

"I thought you said that you've been wanting to come to Chicago forever?" Nora challenged.

"Yeah, I grew up in a tiny little town and always wanted to come here. But..." Charlie trailed off.

"You don't need his permission to stay in town," Nora pointed out. "If you really want to stay in Chicago, you can find a way to with or without his help. Don't let him keep you from that."

"Thanks," Charlie told her with a small smile.

"And don't worry too much if he's trying to shut you out," Nora added. "He does that to everyone."

* * *

"Is that why you two ended things?" Charlie questioned.

It was clear that there had been something going on between the two, but with the way that she had assumed that Charlie was some girl Miles was flirting with, it seemed like they must have broken up at some point. The way that she'd been talking with Charlie alone just confirmed that in her mind.

Nora was silent for a moment before she cracked the slightest smile and admitted, "That was part of it."

Charlie was going to ask whether that made Nora and Miles friends now or what when another questioned popped into her head. She turned and looked over to Bass and Miles for a moment before turning her gaze back over to Nora.

"He talks to Bass, doesn't he?" She questioned. "I mean, Bass knew about me."

Nora shrugged. "Those two have known each other since long before I met either of them. Bass knows the most about Miles, but I'm not sure whether that's from actual conversations or just because he was there for things... Probably a bit of both."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A huge thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, LemonSupreme, driver picks the music, decadenceofmysoul, ToTheSkyAndBack, Swcky, and the anonymous guest for reviewing last chapter! :)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

Bass took a hesitant step into his friend's apartment before quietly asking, "Charlie?"

He waited a few seconds, but still heard no response so he decided he'd better raise his voice a little.

"Charlie?" He repeated, much louder. "Charlie. I'm about to walk through the room. So if you could not freak out again and try to murder me again, that would be appreciated."

The room was still silent so, after a few seconds of waiting, he finally just let out a sigh before beginning to step carefully through the room. He moved, slowly so that he could dodge any objects that may be on the floor, as he continued to speak.

"A normal person would have said something by now if they were awake, so I'm assuming you're asleep," he commented. "And I don't really feel like a repeat of how you woke up yesterday. So I'm going to keep talking and then hopefully you won't wake up in a fighting stance."

He was running out of things to say, but was still only halfway across the room because of how carefully he was walking after the way things had gone the morning before.

"You know I really didn't mean to grope you yesterday. Not that you're not grope-worthy, but I don't usually tend to go for unsuspecting sleeping strangers. My chest wasn't having a lot of fun either at that point, getting burnt and all, if that makes you feel any better... Seriously, how are you still asleep right now?"

"I'm not," she spoke up in a tired, muffled voice as he finally reached the light switch. "I woke up somewhere around the groping part."

Of course she had.

Bass flicked the light switch on and turned around to find a not quite fully awake Charlie move to sit up on the couch. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before and her hair was disheveled.

Charlie rubbed at one of her eyes as she questioned, "So, what? You just bring Miles breakfast everyday? …Seems like a bad deal for you."

"Not when I get free booze out of it," Bass responded with a shrug.

He chose to leave out the detail that their breakfast routine had originated from Bass having to force Miles to get out of bed after the number Rachel had done to him when she'd shown up in Chicago. They'd both gotten used to it and so the routine had stuck, although it sometimes dwindled away over the years before eventually coming back.

* * *

Charlie noticed the extra coffee cup in his hands, then a small smile lit up her face as she asked, "Is one of those for me?"

Charlie had never been a coffee drinker, in fact she'd never even tried it, but she still found herself happy that she was being included into their usual routine. She guessed that Bass wasn't nearly as bad as his awkward first impression had made him seem to her. Still, Nora had warned her about him the night before, which had proven to Charlie that not all of her first impressions had been entirely wrong.

She watched as he looked down at the tray of coffees in his hands before his gaze flickered back up to meet hers. His tone came out amused as he told her, "I thought I may as well bring more coffee, just to make sure that I'd burn myself as much as possible if I tripped again... I brought you food too. Figured you might not try to take mine again then."

"Thanks," she told him as she watched him set the bag of food and tray of coffee down on the table.

He didn't respond before turning and slipping down the hallway, out of her sight.

As Charlie waited, she grabbed a coffee off of the table and decided to try it out. Although she took only a small sip, she still managed to burn her lip on it. That wasn't the only unpleasant thing about the drink. Even as it burned her throat on the way down, she was still just glad that she didn't have the taste of the drink left in her mouth anymore.

Charlie quickly set the drink back down on the table then and wondered why so many people were such big coffee drinkers. She didn't understand how anybody actually enjoyed drinking something so bitter and unpleasant.

And yet when Bass returned to the room with Miles, she decided that she would force herself to take a few small sips to hide how disgusting it was for Bass's benefit. She blamed his black eye and the fact that he had brought her the coffee and breakfast for making her feel guilty enough to still drink it.

Miles didn't say a word as he entered the room. Instead, he grabbed his own coffee and took a long swig out of it. He seemed to be completely desensitized to the taste, as well as the heat, of his drink as he expressionlessly set the cup back down before grabbing the bag of food and sitting down in a chair next to the couch.

Charlie definitely was not used to eating any of her meals in the living room. Her mom had always made everyone get fully ready and dressed in the mornings before having breakfast at the kitchen table, regardless of whether they had anywhere to be. Now she found herself still in her clothes from the day before and still on her couch-bed from the night before as Miles tossed some food over at her.

She had to smirk a little at the thought of what her mother's reaction would be if she could see her then. Charlie found that, even with the bad coffee, she still thought she enjoyed low maintenance meals much better than the meals at home. Her mother would preach table manners, especially when anybody had someone over, so Miles and Bass's routine was a welcome change for Charlie.

* * *

Miles narrowed his eyes over at Charlie when he noticed the look she was giving him.

"What's with the face?" He questioned.

"Nothing," she told him with a shake of her head.

"Good," Miles muttered before tossing Bass's food over to him. "You just planning on standing there all day?"

Bass mumbled something under his breath that Miles pretended not to have heard as the man went to sit in an empty spot on the couch.

There was a brief silence before Charlie focused her attention back onto Miles again, effectively ruining any peacefulness that the breakfast might have been holding for him so far. "...So. You and Nora..."

"No." Miles insisted before she could get any further with that train of thought.

"No, there isn't a you and Nora?" She continued to pry. "Or no, you're not going to talk about this."

"Both." Miles grunted out in an annoyed tone.

He didn't need to explain the details, which even he wasn't exactly sure of, of what had gone on between him and Nora. And he especially didn't need to talk about it to the kid, who would probably take it upon herself to meddle even further into his life.

As Bass muttered under his breath about how there was definitely something still going on between the two, Miles chose to ignore him for the time being.

* * *

Charlie fiddled with the lid of her coffee cup for a few seconds before she took another small sip, and hopefully didn't show just how much the drink disgusted her, before peering back up at Miles again.

"What?" He questioned in a tone that already sounded annoyed enough that she doubted revealing her news would ever go well for her.

She braced herself for a second longer before deciding that maybe it would be a better idea to try using his habit of brushing things off against him, rather than acting like she had made a big mistake. Who knew? Maybe he wouldn't even care.

"Well, this probably isn't that big of a deal. I mean, since there's nothing going on with you and Nora, right?" Charlie challenged, although the little smirk that was playing at her lips didn't feel quite right to her. "But she found out that I'm not your niece."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another gigantic thanks goes out to RevolutionReader, Swcky, Sexy Meat Pies, driver picks the music, ToTheSkyAndBack, JM2788, 4ever-write, and J.C for being awesome and reviewing last chapter! :D**


	5. Chapter 5

Nora stopped at the bar and leaned with her hip against the counter as she questioned, "How's your niece doing?"

Miles knew her well enough to know that, although she was posed casually, her question was anything but. Even if the kid hadn't told him about her slip-up, he would have known it was a trap from the edge to her voice and the glint of challenge in her eye.

"I know Charlie told you that she's my daughter," he grunted out in response. The word daughter felt strange and foreign on his tongue. He didn't like it. Still, Nora already knew and he didn't have the energy to fight to stick to the lie that they both knew she was only playing along with.

He watched her, trying to judge how much trouble he was in for by her expression. He was surprised when she said nothing else and with a quick nod of her head in Bass's direction turned to walk away.

Miles mouth opened to stop her before his brain had the chance to convince him that it was a moronic decision.

"She's barely even mine," he told her. He waited and watched, wetting his lips with his tongue as she turned around and quirked her eyebrow at him. He held back a sigh as he leaned forwards, with most of his weight resting on his arms, as he pressed down on the countertop with his palms. "I know you're pissed I didn't tell you, but she was raised by my brother. I saw her for the first time two days ago. She's only my daughter in the loosest form of the word."

"I'm not pissed," she informed him. "What are you afraid of? Do you think I'm going to break up with you because you didn't explain everything to me? In case you haven't noticed, we stopped dating a while ago. You don't owe me any explanation and I don't have to worry about trying to talk you into explaining things to me anymore."

Miles turned his head to exchange a glance with Bass. He needed to know that his friend had heard so that he could get Bass to back him when she would inevitably change her mind about that attitude later and get pissed at him for something else that he did. He tried to ingrain her exact wording into his mind so that he would be able throw her words back at her later to defend himself.

"Really, so that's it?" He questioned. "I'm not your problem anymore and I can do whatever I want without you saying anything?"

"I can still tell you how much of an idiot you're being," Nora retorted. "Difference is that when I give you advice I don't have to spend all my time trying to convince you that I'm right. Now you can take it or leave it and I'll just sit back and wait to tell you I told you so."

"Hmm, and what advice is it exactly that you couldn't care less whether I listen to or not?"

"You might not owe me anything anymore, but you do owe Charlie," she responded. "She's your kid, Miles. Don't be a dick and push her away."

"I swear I was less of a third wheel when you two were dating," Bass muttered out bitterly as Miles watched her go. "At least then you were both getting laid regularly. Now the sexual tension's so thick I'm afraid that, if I breathe too hard in front of you two, I'm accidentally going to get someone off."

"Trust me, your presence has the exact opposite effect on me," his friend assured him. "No one is going to get pushed over the edge by you being here."

"Sure, that's what you say now," Bass murmured, seeming to take offense at the idea of not being entirely irresistible to everyone around him.

When Nora came back around, Miles couldn't resist calling her over again.

"What? You do realize I have a job other than keeping you two morons amused, right?" She questioned.

"Bass seems to be under the impression that if he breathes too hard, you're going to lose all control of yourself and have an orgasm right here," Miles told her. He looked between the two with shining eyes, then leaned back and waited for the hell to inevitably be set loose on his friend. He figured it would be worth much more entertainment than Bass's company.

"Well, he isn't wrong," Nora responded as a smirk tugged at her lips. "I want him all for myself, that's the whole reason I warned Charlie off of him."

"I wasn't aware that Charlie was on me," Bass replied with a smug grin that made Miles' jaw clench.

"She wasn't. I just know that young and naive is your type and I thought she could use the warning," Nora responded with a shrug.

"And here I was thinking _you_ were my type," Bass responded. "But, hey. If Miles isn't going to let her call him daddy, then I'd be more than happy to."

Miles was about ready to deck Bass as he grabbed his friend's drink from in front of him and downed it in one chug. "Say something like that again and I will murder you. Slowly and painfully."

"Calm down, it was a joke," Bass told him, seeming irritatingly amused with the whole situation. "No need to get so over-protective... You know, you would have made a great one of those dads who's waiting on the front porch in the dark with a shot-gun, or one of those crazy uncles if you would have just-"

Bass finally seemed to pick up on the death-glare Miles had been sending his way then as he turned around to find Charlie standing there.

* * *

Charlie had just caught the end of the conversation and was curious, but could tell by the look on Miles' face that there was no way that he was planning on explaining things to her. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she could tell by the two men's rigid body language that tensions were running high.

As she sat down next to Bass she questioned, "What are you two arguing about?"

She watched Bass's gaze flicker over to Miles for a split second before he turned his attention back to her as he responded, "Miles is just upset about how irresistible I am."

"Right," Charlie responded sarcastically as she emitted a small snort. "Sure." If they didn't want to explain, then fine, but she sure wasn't buying a word of Bass's story. Although, judging by the cocky smile that had spread across his lips, he seemed to be convincing himself just fine.

When she thought she heard him chuckle under his breath, Charlie turned in her seat to find that he was still stone-faced. She decided she must have imagined it and pushed that out of her mind as she refocused her attention onto Nora, who was draping an arm over Bass's shoulders. Charlie watched in surprise as her hand rested lazily on his chest and she grinned down at him like a bird watching its prey.

* * *

Bass bared his teeth and smiled back up at her. As he did so, he suddenly became fully aware of Miles' gaze boring into the side of his skull.

Over Nora, his ass.

"I've got to get back to work," she said as Bass felt her body lean into him further. "Try not to breathe too heavily. It's already hard enough not to pant like a dog, just from seeing you across the room."

Bass let out a laugh at that and watched Nora shoot one last glance in the bartender's direction before detaching herself from him and turning to walk away.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! A giant thanks goes out to Hollywoodlove09, driver picks the music, Angel438, and IceonFire7 for reviewing last chapter! :D**


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning Charlie was in the bathroom when Miles walked into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of packs of sugar that were left over from when Nora had lived there and poured them into the coffee in his hands.

"Since when do you take your coffee anything but as bitter as you are?" Bass questioned.

"It's not mine," Miles responded as he replaced the lid on the coffee. "It's Charlie's. Didn't you see her face when she was drinking it black yesterday? ...And yet she was still dumb enough to keep drinking it."

"And you're putting sugar in it while she's in the bathroom instead of just telling her where the sugar was yesterday because..?" Bass trailed off as he followed the other man back into the living room.

"Because she'll make way too big of a deal out of it," Miles responded. "And I don't want to listen to it."

Hell, he'd been putting off finding her a proper pillow and blanket since she had shown up because he was sure that she would take it as an invitation to permanently change her address to his couch. It was becoming increasingly obvious that she wasn't going to find them on her own anytime soon though, despite the fact that he was convinced she had already gone snooping through his stuff. If she didn't figure it out soon he might have do something about it, at least assuming she wasn't already too over-excited about something else, like him remembering her name or them wearing the same coloured shirt or whatever else her overly analyzing, over-excited mind might decide was a huge deal to her.

Bass didn't get the chance to argue with him before the girl in question reappeared in the room.

* * *

"I'm going to need to see some ID," Miles insisted when Charlie showed up at his bar looking for a drink.

Charlie rolled her eyes at that. "Are you serious? I'm pretty sure you know I'm legal."

"Rules are rules, Charlie," he told her with an unsympathetic shake of his head, even though she was certain he was not the type to be afraid to bend the rules a little.

"Fine," she muttered as she pulled her license out and handed it over. "Happy?"

He was taking more time than could possibly be necessary, with a smug grin on his lips that only grew as he dodged her attempt to grab it back out of his hand.

"Come on, Miles," she complained. "That's a terrible picture. Just give it back."

He ignored that though as he commented, "It figures you came out early with that overly eager attitude."

He finally handed her ID back over as she asked, "What?"

"Your birthday. It's ten days before your due date," he responded, suddenly seeming quite a bit less comfortable with the conversation. "I guess you couldn't wait."

"You remember my due date?" Charlie questioned, choosing to focus on that rather than the fact that up until thirty seconds earlier he hadn't known her birthday. After all, she hadn't even known that he had known her due date.

Miles seemed more than happy to switch conversations at that point as Nora, whose shift had just ended, came over and told him, "I need your keys."

Charlie wondered what for, but Miles didn't seem to as he just reached into his pocket and handed them over with a simple, "I need them back after. She's got mine."

If Charlie had Miles' keys and she knew that Bass still had a set, then did that mean that Nora had used to live with Miles and he was using her old keys? She silently made a mental note to confirm her suspicions later with Bass or Nora, who she figured would be far more likely to give her a good answer than Miles would.

As Nora headed for the stairs to Miles' apartment, Charlie questioned, "What does she need it for?"

"I don't know," Miles responded with a shrug.

"Aren't you curious?" She prodded.

"Not really," he responded. "Why? Are you afraid she's going to steal your stuff?"

"Just pour my drink," Charlie retorted. "For someone who claims to be busy working so often, you're sure not doing a very good job."

"Hey. If I'm paying for the drink, then I can take as long as I want to pour it," he countered.

"I'm sure you're a _very_ patient customer," she commented sarcastically. "And since when are you paying?"

"Since I'm not giving you whiskey and watching you try to choke it down just because you asked for whatever I drink," he responded as he set a distinctly girlier drink than she had ordered down in front of her. "You're welcome."

"The service here is terrible," she teased as she decided that she'd definitely be bringing it up around Bass later that he'd given her a girly drink after she had told him to get her what he was having.

* * *

Nora walked back downstairs after changing out of her work clothes and into some much nicer ones. She'd even fought with her hair and make-up and had proudly managed to make it look like she had spent the appropriate amount of time getting ready, rather than just slipping up to her ex's apartment in a rush to try to look decent after she had just spent hours working.

"Why are you dressed like that?" Miles questioned in an unimpressed tone as she handed his keys back over to him.

"I think she looks good," Charlie insisted as she looked over at him, seeming about as impressed with him as he seemed with Nora's outfit.

"That's what I said," Miles argued.

"No. It isn't," his daughter insisted.

"It really is a mystery why I dated you," Nora pointed out. "Not that it's any of your business, but I have a date and I didn't have time to go home before I meet him."

"And you're wearing that?" He questioned. "Don't you think that you're a little over-dressed?"

"You don't even know where I'm going," Nora countered. "Have you considered the idea that maybe he's taking me somewhere nicer than you ever did?"

Miles looked her over, then commented, "You don't have to try this hard for whoever it is. You're probably way out of his league anyways and if the guy needs you dressed like this to realize that, then he's obviously an idiot and doesn't deserve you."

"That was actually surprisingly sweet," Nora commented. Maybe his compliment was a little rough around the edges, but she was momentarily reminded of what she had seen in him.

"Besides, he's making you meet him there instead of picking you up?" Miles questioned. "The guy's clearly a dead-beat and you could do better. You're wasting your time and effort trying to dress up for him. And even if he was a twelve or higher, all of this-" he gestured from her dress to her hair and make-up, then back down again "-will be a waste of time the instant you take your dress off."

"And now you ruined it," Nora insisted. She should have known better than to expect that he wouldn't. "You do realize that I am fully capable of getting myself there without a ride from him, right? And I'm not even going to go near that second part."

"I meant that he's not going to be worried about whether your hair and make-up and clothes are perfect or not because he's clearly insane or playing for the other team if he's thinking about any of that once you've taken your clothes off," he explained. "And either way he doesn't deserve you."

"Nice try, but you should really stop talking now," Nora told him. She still couldn't quite resist asking though, "But let me guess. My date, who you know nothing about, doesn't deserve me, but you do."

"We've already determined that I don't," he pointed out. "I'm just saying don't worry so much about impressing this guy because he probably doesn't deserve you anyways."

Nora still wasn't certain whether to be flattered or annoyed with him as she responded, "Well then, thanks I guess."

* * *

Once the other woman was gone, Charlie turned her attention back to Miles as she shot him a wide smirk. There was no longer a single doubt in her mind that he was still interested in Nora.

"Not a word," he warned her.

"You're jealous," she accused anyways.

"Just drink your damn drink, Charlie."

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Another huge thanks goes out to JM2788, 4ever-write, perfectmanhattan, simbagirl, driver picks the music, and IceonFire7 for reviewing last chapter! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

When Bass woke up Charlie the next morning, he walked back over to the couch instead of going off to get Miles up.

"I got you something," he told her. His usual cocky demeanour faltered and if she hadn't known better she might have thought he was uncomfortable. His hands were in his pockets and his shoulders were hunched as if he had forgotten what he was doing halfway through a shrug. "I mean, it's not a big deal. It barely cost anything. But I saw it and I figured you seemed like the type to like cheesy tourist stuff and I figured Miles keeps talking about you not staying long, so you could use something to take with you when you go back."

He was rambling now and barely looking at her and Charlie was absolutely fascinated with this shift in his character.

When he finally managed to stop explaining, he grabbed the small plastic bag off the table from next to the food as she watched in anticipation. He handed it over to her and she gave him one last glance before her attention turned to his gift.

She tore the bag opened, discarding at her side, and a wide smile formed on her lips as she saw what was inside. It was a little souvenir snow globe of Chicago and it was perfect. She wasn't sure what she had done to deserve a gift, but she was touched that at least someone seemed to be alright with her sticking around.

"Anyways, I should probably go wake Miles up," he told her awkwardly. "He doesn't like it when his coffee gets cold."

* * *

Bass grabbed one coffee for him and one for Miles, leaving the one he'd put a generous amount of sugar in behind for Charlie, then headed for the hall.

He stepped into Miles' room and flicked the light on, causing the other man to let out a loud groan as he rolled onto his back and pulled a pillow over his face. Sadly, this was one of the friendlier greetings he'd gotten as Miles' personal alarm clock over the years.

"You pissy because Charlie's still on your couch?" He asked. "Or because Nora went on a date last night?" He'd shown up at the bar late last night and Charlie had filled him in all about how Nora had left all dolled up for a date and how Miles had clearly been jealous. The bartender had interjected at that point to deny it, but Bass was sure he knew the truth. "Or is this just your regular 'I'm going to thank Bass for bringing me breakfast and caffeine every morning by completely ignoring his presence' level of pissy?"

The pillow moved from face to chest, then Miles sat up a little and responded, "I don't care if Nora had a date. She can date whoever she wants. And I'd rather have Charlie on my couch than following me around like every damn night is bring your kid to work day."

"So, I'll take that as an all of the above then," Bass commented with a low chuckle. He walked over to the bed and stretched out the arm that held the coffee he hadn't already drank from. "Get up."

* * *

If Miles noticed the snow globe sitting next to Charlie on the couch, then he didn't let it show or say anything. Instead, he fell heavily into the armchair and waited for Bass to hand him his breakfast.

"Good morning, Miles," his daughter greeted him in a chipper tone.

"No such thing," he grumbled out, then took a long swig from his coffee cup.

When the room still remained silent, Charlie decided to distract herself as she took a small sip from her own cup. Either she was imagining it or coffee was starting to taste not quite as bad. In fact, she thought she even might finish this cup and not have to wait for the perfect moment to dump the rest down the sink without anyone finding out.

* * *

Charlie apparently had somewhere to go, since she ate her meal faster than usual and kept her chatter to a minimum. Well, a minimum for her at least.

When she came back minutes after finishing her breakfast, fully dressed and ready for the day, Miles declined the opportunity to ask where she was scurrying off to. It didn't really matter and he didn't want to invite her to start an unwanted lengthy explanation. As long as he was going to get her out of his hair, even for a few hours, he was happy.

She closed the door behind her and Miles frowned as he looked over at his couch. It was clear that Charlie was not going to figure out where the blankets were for herself. Still, she'd been there for three nights and had yet to get herself a blanket and a proper pillow and she obviously wasn't planning on leaving soon, whether she had somewhere comfortable to sleep or not. So when Bass left, he finally gave in and grabbed them for her while she was out who knows where, probably at some dorky tourist site that she knew way too much about.

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Miles asked when Nora approached him at the bar that evening. "I thought you had the night off."

"I was out with Charlie," she responded. "Took her shopping and showed her around the city a bit. She's upstairs, putting her stuff away."

"Well, I guess that'd explain why she hasn't been hovering over my shoulder all day," he responded. Then almost as an afterthought he added, "That was nice. I mean, if she gets excited over hanging around in a rundown bar, then I can't imagine how she'd react to sight-seeing."

"She's not excited about the bar, you idiot," Nora pointed out. "She keeps hanging around because she wants to spend time with you. She wouldn't be sitting around here every night if she wasn't clearly trying to get to know you."

This was getting into an area with a dangerous potential for preaching and lecturing, so Miles decided to change the subject.

"You don't have to keep her occupied for me, you know," he told her.

"It's not for you," she responded. "I like her. A lot, actually. She's a sweet girl. Maybe it's a good thing she didn't grow up around you."

Miles would be annoyed if she wasn't right. The kid might be a bit much at times, but she cared. A lot. She was good and she probably was lucky that he hasn't raised her and screwed that up.

"She looks like she's in a good mood," Nora commented as Charlie came back down from the apartment she had gone up to less than five minutes earlier.

"She's always in a good mood," Miles countered.

Nora did have a point though, the kid was practically skipping as she made her way over to the bar.

"You made me a bed," she pointed out with a beaming grin.

Miles caught Nora looking surprised at him over Charlie's shoulder and figured that she wasn't going to stay impressed with him for very long.

"I did not," he insisted.

"Yes you did," Charlie responded happily. "It didn't just appear out of nowhere."

"Don't try to make a big deal out of this," Miles told her. This was why he had decided to not to tell her about putting sugar into her coffee. She made such a big deal out of such a little thing. "It's not like I built you a bed. I threw a pillow and a blanket down. It took me less than two minutes. And I figured you were too stupid to figure it out yourself, so..."

She did not seem deterred by that statement though as she pointed out, "You still went out of your way to set me up a bed. That means that you don't mind having me around as much as you like to pretend you do."

"I'm starting to mind a whole lot more now," he countered. When she still didn't simmer down a little, he turned to Nora and decided to change the subject.

* * *

"So, how'd your date go last night?" Miles asked. His voice came out nonchalant, but something in the way he was trying to look busy wiping down the counter and keeping his eyes away from Nora told Charlie that he definitely was not just making casual conversation. "He make it past the front door?"

"First of all, that is absolutely none of your business," the waitress told him. "And second, it went fine. Paul was nice."

Miles winced a little for show as he commented, "That bad, huh?"

Charlie thought she must be missing something as she questioned, "What's wrong with being nice?"

"Nothing," he responded innocently. "If you're into boring and routine. But Nora isn't into nice. That's why she dated me."

So he had finally given up on denying that they had been an item. That felt like a step in the right direction to Charlie.

"Maybe I'm looking to try something new," Nora pointed out. "I did also break up with you. Remember?"

"No, I'd totally forgotten," he deadpanned. "Tell me more. When did this happen?"

Nora rolled her eyes, but Miles wasn't nearly finished yet.

"No, I'm serious," he continued as a small smirk began to form on his lips. "I'm just trying to figure out how I could have missed it."

"Goodbye, Miles," she said with a smile Charlie thought was just a hint too friendly for someone who was pretending to be annoyed with him, as she turned and headed for the door.

* * *

**A/N: Please read and review! Sorry that I haven't updated this in almost a year, but I'm trying to get my stories updated on a somewhat regular basis now. A huge thanks goes out to Hollywoodlove09, simbagirl, perfectmanhattan, driver picks the music, LemonSupreme, CJ17, TheDuskyCreeper, and the anonymous guest for being awesome and reviewing the last chapter! :)**


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